RE: “CUSA Midterm Review,” Jan. 8-14.
Last week, readers of the Charlatan were treated to a midterm review, which reviewed the promises made by student leaders in the various student associations in the university and examined whether or not these promises had been fulfilled at the midterm mark.
And yet the only thing these midterm reviews served to really remind us of was the small-minded lack of imagination possessed by our leaders in the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA).
There are, without a doubt, many issues in this university which require leadership and advocacy on the part of our student association. From issues of safety in our tunnels, to the fact countless students in our university are unable to meet their basic expenses and tuition payments, our student community needs real advocacy and real imagination. And yet the limit of the leadership we see from our so-called student leaders extends only to pandering and self-serving gimmickry.
Instead of coming up with a plan to advocate for the thousands of students each year who struggle to meet their tuition expenses, the most help your student association can offer the struggling student is the trinket of $1.50 waived at the ATM machine.
Instead of addressing the serious accusations of favouritism, inappropriate lobbying, and inefficiency which were levelled by our former clubs and societies commissioner, an individual who raised serious structural issues with the way the clubs and societies office was run, the best our club leaders are offered is the trinket of a little more storage space.
The question is: why are we offered gimmicks instead of real leadership? Because real leadership, and real advocacy, would require something I believe our current leaders sadly lack—courage of conviction and a willingness to take risks for the betterment of the student body. It’s the difference between politicians and leaders.
Politicians can only look forward to the next election campaign, giving the voters just enough so the low information voter then proceeds to cast a ballot in their favour. Politicians don’t take risks, and don’t try to make big changes, the kind that could really improve the lives of ordinary people, because that is a risk to their popularity and their political careers.
What the midterm reviews reminded us of is the fact that the people heading our student association are politicians—good for the next election, perhaps, but they are not leaders.
And as long as they are not leaders, the real issues facing students in this university will go pitifully unaddressed, as the tuition goes ever higher, and the state of our democracy in this university declines ever further.
